You may have heard that you should never make show bets.
These bets generally pay much less than win or place bets, and if you like a horse to show, you might as well bet him to win so you can make the bet worthwhile.
This is how the argument goes-but is it a factual argument? Sometimes, it is actually more correct to place a show bet than it is to place winning wagers.
These are rare occurrences, but if you know what to look for, you can make money safely with the following method.
First, you need to have a small field of horses.
This increases the chances that your show bet will hit; an ideal number is between 5 and 7 entries.
The next thing you need to look for is a clear favorite.
If there is a horse in the field that is down to 1-1 or even worse, you will want to proceed to the next step.
If there is no clear favorite, a show bet will not be worthwhile.
Once you have determined that a favorite exists, you need to look at the other horses in the field.
Since the favorite will be getting the vast majority of bets, you want to carefully consider each of the remaining horses for the race.
The favorite to win needs to have a large proportion of betting dollars placed on it across the board.
This means that it should be not only the overwhelming favorite for winning, but placing and showing as well.
This should lead to having a very small percentage of place and show bets on the remaining horses.
The final step is the most critical one.
Basic handicapping theory tells us that we shouldn't place show bets, but if the payout for show bets is skewed dramatically, it becomes mathematically correct to place two or more show bets on the underdog horses in the field.
If the clear favorite does not win, the remaining horses will have high payouts for showing.
You will want to place three to four show bets, but if you place them correctly, they will payout handsomely.
Because you make several show bets, sometimes you will have two or even three winning tickets.
How does this work? Let's look at an example.
When my wife and I were expecting our first child, we stopped by the Batavia Downs (NY) harness track to see a few races.
I found a horse that had an extremely small amount of bets placed on it to show so I put a bet on it.
That horse went on to win the race, but there were so few betting dollars placed on it, the show wagering paid out more than the winning wager.
In the above example, you can see how a show wager can be beneficial.
This will only happen rarely but you need to recognize the conditions that make such a payoff possible.